Marvellous Marsha to light up the Tattersalls board in December

Elite Racing Club put their superstar filly up for auction

Marsha: hails from the family of Soviet Song

Edward Whitaker

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By Martin Stevens
4:51PM, OCT 20 2017

Brilliant sprint filly Marsha is set to find herself in demand from the world's leading breeders when she is sent to this year's Tattersalls December Breeding-Stock Sale by owner-breeder Elite Racing Club.

Marsha has been trained by Sir Mark Prescott to win seven of her 17 starts including a pair of races at two, when she was also third in the Listed Mercury Stakes at Dundalk.

She progressed through the sprinting ranks last year at three, notching Listed victories at Ayr and York before signing off for the season with a defeat of Washington DC and Mecca's Angel in the Prix de l'Abbaye.

Marsha took her form to a new level this year, winning the Palace House Stakes and taking the notable scalp of Lady Aurelia to score a second top-level victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes. She has also finished placed in the King's Stand Stakes, Sapphire Stakes, King George Stakes and in her repeat bid in the Prix de l'Abbaye.

Marsha will arrive for her appointment with the auctioneer at Tattersalls via a trip to Del Mar for a rematch with Lady Aurelia in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.

Elite Racing Club's Dan Downie said: "Marsha has been an absolute star for us and we're delighted to be sending her to the December sale as we're confident that Tattersalls is the best platform from which to showcase our star filly."

Marsha - and another Group 1-winning sprinter confirmed for Tattersalls, Quiet Reflection - should be in hot demand as this season's Group 1 racing has illustrated the efficacy of a speedy mare in a mating. Churchill and Clemmie are out of the fast and precocious Meow, for instance, while Happily and her Classic-winning siblings Gleneagles and Marvellous are out of Cherry Hinton Stakes winner You'resothrilling.

What will also aid Marsha's case as a breeding prospect is that her sire Acclamation has enjoyed another excellent year, having also supplied the likes of Aclaim and Expert Eye and featuring as damsire of the high-class Massaat. His influence is also deepening as son Dark Angel goes from strength to strength as a sire in his own right.

Furthermore, Marsha has a fine maternal pedigree as a half-sister to the useful sprinter Judicial out of a Listed-winning daughter of Marju and hailing from the close family of the Elite Racing Club's exceptional racemare Soviet Song.

She will be consigned to the sale - which takes place over four days from December 4 - by Prescott's Heath House Stables.